Saturday, 30 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign.

Following the expensive reorganisation of the NHS in 2009, it has been revealed by a Freedom Information Request that top NHS executives who were moved into new jobs following the reorganisation have had their six-figure salaries protected for up to 10 years.

More than 120 former NHS directors and managers have been redeployed elsewhere in the health service and the Welsh Assembly Government following the changes negotiated with trade unions. But they will have their salaries, which are as high as £195,000 a year in some cases, protected for years.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign.

Official figures released in February revealed that Wales is still so poor that it may qualify for the highest level of European funding yet again, confirming that the Labour-led government has wasted opportunities to boost the economy of Wales over the last decade.

Since 1999, Wales has spent £5 billion on regeneration, which is the equivalent of £1,600 for every person living in Wales. European funding is aimed at lifting people out of poverty and boosting economic development and regeneration. Despite £5 billion being spent, Wales is still poor enough to qualify for another round of funding.

Thursday, 28 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

In Autumn last year, under pressure from Kirsty Williams, the First Minister was forced to reveal the £500,000 shocking cost of commissioning McKinsey to produce a report on the future of the NHS. The report was never published and was described by the Government as 'a little discussion paper' and ‘a compilation of slides’. The UK government spent just £46,000 commissioning a similar report from McKinsey.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign.

Since 2007, the Labour – Plaid Government has spent nearly £15 million on a computer project that is supposed to assist in development and delivery of policy however this expensive project has been branded by senior WAG civil servants as “a total waste of money”.

The IDEAS Programme is supposed to improve financial management across the organisation however it has resulted in civil servants criticising the programme stating that it undermines the role of specialists within the civil service and leads to greater inefficiencies.

Sunday, 24 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

Figures released by the Welsh Liberal Democrats last autumn revealed that many of the Labour-Plaid government's flagship Technium projects made massive losses. Freedom of Information requests revealed a loss in excess of £5.4 million since 2001.

The Technium scheme was a flagship government project founded in 2001 as an attempt to develop a series of sites where science and technology businesses could be nurtured.

Mike Priestley, Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate for Aberconwy said:

"Despite a number of individual successes, overall the Technium project has made losses of over £5.4 million. Some individual projects have made huge losses. Port Talbot has lost £2.2 million and so has Technium Cast in Bangor.

“The Technium project has been widely criticised, including by the Government’s own Economic Advisory Council. Welsh Liberal Democrats have argued for a much closer relationship with the universities to help create more organic clusters of expertise and innovation. Instead, the Labour-Plaid government ignored expert advice and have presided over a colossal waste of tax payer’s money.

“When every family, charity and business is making every pound stretch that little bit further, Wales needs a government that does the same. Labour and Plaid Cymru have turned waste, incompetence and inefficiency into an art form.”

“The Welsh Liberal Democrats are continuing to expose, on each day of the election campaign, examples of the waste and inefficiency of the Labour-Plaid government during their four years in power.”

Friday, 22 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

It was revealed last October that Wales won just £570,000 worth of Tier One Olympic Contracts compared to £17 million for Northern Ireland and £22 million for Scotland. Freedom of Information requests placed by the Welsh Liberal Democrats revealed that there had been no written correspondence between the Welsh Ministers and the Olympic Delivery Authority in the last three years.

Welsh firms are missing out on multi million pound Olympic contracts as the Scottish and Northern Irish governments leave Wales trailing.

The Minister for Economy and Transport, Plaid Cymru's Ieuan Wyn Jones, wrote to his Northern Ireland counterpart bemoaning Wales' lack of success, stating 'The amount of Welsh companies who have successfully won business via the CompeteFor Portal is lower than we hoped'. However, Ieuan Wyn Jones had not written to the ODA himself.

Thursday, 21 April 2011

A great day canvassing today, really positive comments and we ran out of window posters. We usually take the posters for residents to place in their windows to demonstrate support, running out this morning was a first for us.

One thing that is coming out strong on the doorstep is that people want to know where the candidates live, that was not such an issue in the parliamentary campaign. I find this fact very interesting because only 2 of the 4 candidates live in the constituency.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

A bridge too far? It was revealed last August that the Labour-Plaid government spent £190,000 on a bridge to help dormice to cross a by-pass near Pontypridd. Newport built a similar dormouse bridge for just £22,000.

"At a time when budgets are stretched, it is wasteful and irresponsible for the Labour-Plaid government to spend taxpayers' money on teachers that Wales does not have vacancies to employ.

"With education spending already £604 per pupil less than in England, Wales can ill afford to be subsidising the English education system. In maths, for example, we have trained 133 teachers at a cost of £1.1 million who are not teaching in Wales at all.

"The Government were advised in the 2006 Furlong Report to cut the number of training places in half but this advice was ignored. The Education Minister stated in 2008 that she would be supporting a reduction of 50 per cent of training places in primary and 25 per cent reduction in secondary training places, but this saving has not taken place.

Sunday, 17 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

It was revealed last August that the legal cost of the Labour-Plaid Government's fight to challenges to its planned badger cull pilot was more than £57,000, with nearly £20,000 paid towards the Badger Trust’s costs.

The Labour-Plaid government’s badger cull order was overturned by the Court of Appeal as they said it was wrong to make an order for the whole of Wales when the Government consulted on the basis of an Intensive Action Pilot Area (IAPA) which only supported a cull on evidence within the IAPA.

The assembly government had to pay £57,000 for losing the legal challenges to its planned badger cull.

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Last February, it was revealed by the Welsh Liberal Democrats that health bosses in North Wales had been taking advantage of a £1.1m subsidy for leased cars to run top of the range Jaguars, sporty Audis and BMWs. The Betsi Cadwaladr health board pays out £2m-a-year for a car leasing contract.

Some £940,000 of that is recouped from payments from staff who choose to top up the subsidy to run a higher specification vehicle than standard.

The list of leased vehicles, published under the Freedom of Information Act, contained a £24,000 Alfa Romeo costing £5,311-a-year; a £36,000 Audi costing £8,188-a-year; BMW 3-series Sport at £7,098-a-year; and four Jaguars, including an XF S-Luxury worth £39,000 and leased at £8,748-a-year.

Friday, 15 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

It was revealed last month that the cost of running empty office space across the Labour-Plaid government estate cost over £1,200 a day. The total amount of vacant space within the Assembly Government’s administrative estate stands at 1,817 square metres.

The total annual running costs – including rent, rates, service charges, utilities, cleaning and maintenance – was £449,927 “as at March 31st 2011”. That’s up from £344,173 the previous year, when the total vacant space was 1,441 square metres.

Thursday, 14 April 2011

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign.

In August 2010, it was revealed that the Labour-Plaid government had spent more that £400,000 in a year on external PR companies while employing 25 full-time PR and communications staff. A Freedom of Information request revealed the Labour-Plaid government used external PR firms from April 2009 to March 2010.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign

Last November, it was revealed that £3.5 million of Welsh Government money had been spent in the last three years on ‘climate change awareness’, rather than programmes that directly reduce carbon emissions. Grants include £20,000 over two years for an annual newspaper supplements on climate change and over £0.5 million a year to the Sustainable Development Commission and Cynnal Cymru.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats estimated that this money could have paid for around 1000improvements to homes in fuel poverty through the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme making an immediate impact on carbon emissions.

Friday, 8 April 2011

We had a great day today with Nick Clegg coming to support my Welsh Assembly Campaign.

Nick told everyone that:

These are difficult times for people across Britain, but this week has shown that this can also be an opportunity to reshape Britain into a fairer, more equal and greener country.

Labour's financial legacy has left our country needing to borrow an extra £400million, every single day, just to get by. Labour also left us paying £120 million in interest on our debt each and every day - for that we could build a new primary school every hour.

Conwy’s share of the country’s debt now stands at a dangerous £3.92billion and something needs to be done.

But despite all this, Liberal Democrat policies coming into action this week are making a positive difference to people’s lives.

Over the last seven days in Conwy, thanks to Liberal Democrats:42000 people are getting a £200 income tax cut - benefiting 23 million people across the country2200 people have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether, with more to comepensioners have been given an extra £4.50 a week – and those retiring from today will be on average £15,000 better off over their retirement.Liberal Democrats in government will not stop there.

This week also saw Pensions Minister Steve Webb announcing that the Government will be introducing a simple, flat-rate state pension of £140 to replace the current complicated, unfair and means-tested system.

Business Secretary Vince Cable is cutting regulation to promote small business and create jobs.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne revealed that Britain will be hosting the 2012 Clean Energy Summit - putting Britain at the heart of the Green Energy Revolution.

The Liberal Democrats have entered government at one of the most challenging times for the country. We did not choose the moment but we have not shrunk from our responsibility to act in the national interest. We will not miss the opportunity we have to build a greener, fairer and more liberal Britain.

Nick was very well received by all and I thanked him for taking time out to support my campaign.

Friday, 1 April 2011

I have had a meeting this week with Regulatory Services and discussed various ways of tackling this issue, from Education to fining. I will feedback on this later as it was a very comprehensive and productive meeting.

Fixed Penalty notices issued 1st March to 31st March (Fines)

Dog Fouling 22Dropping Litter 2

I can also confirm that there will be more activities in relation to tackling this type of problem in the near future.

Interesting Estimates

It is estimated that one in three households include a dog, with around 100,000 households in Conwy and Denbighshire, it is estimated that we have around 33,000 dogs.

Each dog potentially produces, a conservatively estimated, 100 grammes of waste a day, collectively around 3.3 tonnes per day or just over 1200 tonnes per annum.

So just the mindless minority not picking up after their dog is quite a problem.

Showdown

Conwy Castle from RSPB

About Me

Married to Lorraine, two girls.
I am currently a County Councillor representing the Marl Ward in Llandudno Junction. I am also Cabinet Member with responsibility for Highways and Property. I was Chair of Governors at Ysgol Aberconwy and I also Chair the Junction based Teenz and Kidz drama workshop, set up 17 years ago, aimed at getting the children off the streets.
Disclaimer: The views expressed on this blog are my own, and should not be associated officially to Conwy CBC.